One of Italy’s most critically acclaimed contemporary novelists, Nicola Lagioia has been the recipient of the Volponi, Straniero, and Viareggio awards, in addition to the Strega. In 2010 he was named one of Italy’s best writers under forty. He has been a jury member of the Venice Film Festival and is the program director of the Turin Book Fair. Lagioia is a contributor to Italy’s most prominent culture pages. He was born in Bari, and lives in Rome. Ferocity is his English-language debut.
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Nicola Lagioia and Eva Ferri at the Festival of Italian Literature in London.
A selection of images of Europa's events at FILL 2018 - Festival of Italian Literature in London.
Two Europa titles are included in the nominees: Santiago Gamboa, Return to the Dark Valley and Nicola Lagioia, Ferocity.
Latest reviews
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Gripping tale exposes corrupt underbelly of Berlusconi’s Italy and brutalisation of women— The Irish Times, Oct 5 2018![]()
Jacques Testard Publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions I wish I’d published: Ferocity by Nicola Lagioia (translated by Anthony Shugaar, Europa Editions), a Lynchian noir set in southern Italy.— The Guardian, Dec 29 2017![]()
For the Anglophone world, Lagioia is now the Italian author to watch.— The Herald, Oct 30 2017![]()
Ferocity reads like a meticulously cinematic film-noir thriller, where the lustre of technique and the genuineness of inspiration fuse and are intended to collaborate.— Bookanista, Oct 23 2017![]()
This tale of a family tragedy in Bari is full of bad business and musings on the nature of humanity— The Observer, Oct 15 2017![]()
A young woman, naked and covered in blood, totters numbly down a night road. A driver spots her in his headlights and swerves. Was he the last to see Clara alive? Did she jump to her death from a parking structure, as stated in the report? Are her rich family trying to hide more...— The Spectator, Oct 12 2017![]()
The winner of Italy’s 2015 Strega Prize (and translated into English) is a complex and, at times, disorienting tale set in 1980s Bari, and will require your undivided attention. With notes of Elena Ferrante, operatic tragedy and even overtones of the Corleones, the story begins...— Emerald City, Oct 9 2017![]()
Vittorio Salvemini is a crooked property developer who has staked everything of a controversial villa complex in Southern Italy. One night a young woman is seen wondering down a main road, naked and covered in blood; two days later Vittorio’s manically promiscuous daughter...— Mail on Sunday, Oct 8 2017![]()
An energetic tale of greed, vanity and murder in southern Italy— Financial Times, Oct 6 2017![]()
The mystery of what happened to Clara Salvemini takes us down dark pathways of familial and societal corruption.— BBC Culture, Oct 3 2017![]()
Italian author Nicola Lagioia's novel Ferocity won that country's highest literary award, how well does it work in translation? Tom Sutcliffe discussed Ferocity with guest panellists Sebastian Faulks, Meg Rosoff and Tiffany Murray.— BBC Radio 4, Oct 3 2017![]()
A rich and readable cautionary tale for strong-minded readers.— Library Journal, Sep 7 2017![]()
Read the first chapter of Ferocity and you think you're dealing with your average thriller set in eighties Italy. Then you notice the details: moths throwing themselves against a lightbulb, the rippling of lights on a pool. Before you know it you're foreshadowing a story that's...— Stylist, Aug 24 2017![]()
In Lagioia’s powerful novel, Clara Salvemini’s violent death is ruled a suicide, causing her estranged brother, Michele, to return to the family villa to investigate. Growing up, Clara was the only member of the family to treat Michele, a son of the patriarch’s mistress,...— Publishers Weekly, Aug 20 2017![]()
Ferocity is the latest from Europa Editions, which also publishes Elena Ferrante (as well as gems like Treasure Island!!! and The Elegance of Hedgehog). Pitched as Gillian Flynn meets Jonathan Franzen, Ferocity won the 2015 Strega Prize, Italy’s preeminent fiction prize, and...— The Millions, Jul 11 2017![]()
A pale three-quarter moon lit up the state highway at two in the morning. The road connected the province of Taranto to Bari, and at that time of night it was usually deserted. As it ran north, the road oscillated, aligning with and diverging from an imaginary axis, leaving behind...— The White Review, Jun 12 2017![]()
What drew me to this book was the fact that it beat Elena Ferrante’s Story of the Lost Child to win the Strega Prize (Italy’s Booker equivalent) in 2015. It is billed as “a combination of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom, filtered through the...— Bookriot, May 24 2017![]()
Ferocity is by Nicola Lagioia and is the Winner of the 2015 Strega Prize. Southern Italy, the 1980s. On a hot summer's night under a full moon, far from the outlying neighborhoods of a southern Italian metropolis, Clara stumbles naked, dazed, and bloodied down a major highway.— Shots Magazine, Apr 25 2017![]()
Lagioia makes his enthralling English-language debut, translated into dazzling prose by Shugaar. Amid what is likely the most stirring passage ever written in all of literature about a gas station sky dancer, a naked, blood-covered woman emerges from the brush, stumbling past...— Kirkus Review, Mar 1 2017
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